PROTECTING baitfish is almost as important as protecting gamefish. Without fish to prey on, there would not be an abundance of striped bass, as well as bluefish and other marine life that need baitfish to survive.

The National Coalition for Marine Conservation (NCMC) recently went before the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to present a new plan to conserve menhaden (bunker), one of the most important prey fish on the East Coast.

Citing the diminished ecological role of menhaden caused by overfishing in Chesapeake Bay (in particular, the threat it poses to the sustainability of the hard-won recovery of striped bass), NCMC asked the Commission’s Menhaden Management Board to begin immediately the process of amending the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden.

“We believe, as do other fishing and conservation organizations, along with thousands of anglers, that there is a danger to striped bass and other key predators if we continue to harvest menhaden the way we do,” said NCMC president Ken Hinman, who serves as a member of the ASMFC’s Menhaden Advisory Panel. “We are urging the Commission to amend its coast-wide management regulations to change the way we fish for menhaden, in a way that respects its role in the food chain, before an ecological crisis occurs.”

Overfishing in the Chesapeake, which produces nearly half of each new generation of menhaden for the coast-wide stock and up to 90 percent of migratory striped bass, endangers stripers and other predators (bluefish, weakfish, waterbirds) throughout their range. Anglers up and down the coast sacrificed for more than a decade to restore the once-depleted striper.

* My new hero is Father Thomas Kochery. The Redemptorist priest is hailed as a champion of India’s 8 million traditional fishermen. Last month, Kochery turned down a $150,000 award from the Pew Charitable Foundation of Massachusetts, saying the award sponsored by the Sun Oil Co. is “blood money.”

The Pew Foundation, instituted by the Sun, has been “one of the largest polluters in the U.S. He [Kochery] believes that a polluter giving an award for marine conservation is a contradiction,” said a statement from the World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish Workers meeting in New Delhi attended by over 150 delegates from 32 fishing countries.

Countrywide protests by traditional fishermen under the leadership of Kochery against environmentally destructive trawlers and foreign fishing vessels in Indian waters achieved a crucial breakthrough earlier this year when the government decided not to renew the licenses of foreign fishing vessels.

“The Sun Oil Company is one of the worst polluters of the sea. I will be betraying the fishermen if I receive this fellowship,” Kochery said.

* In a city where good luck can translate to real fortune, organizers of Atlantic SAIL EXPO have decided to add a twist to their annual sailboat show, held from Thursday to Sunday at the Atlantic City Convention Center. This year’s show will feature a prize giveaway worth tens of thousands of dollars. A handful of lucky folks who attend the EXPO will head home from the show with a boat, a sailing vacation or a number of other prizes.